


Fight Club

by m_ira



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-22 05:49:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13160580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/m_ira/pseuds/m_ira
Summary: based on the prompt: character A meets character B in the ER on christmas eve. but heavily changed





	Fight Club

**Author's Note:**

> this is for the clexa secret santa 2017 event! tinyolsen, i hope you like my little story and it was a pleasure to be your secret santa. i wish you all the best and a wonderful new year ❤

The room was small and grey, every corner filled with metallic cabinets and cardboard boxes, dipped into a flickering blue-ish color by the fluorescent lights. Clarke was laying on her side, the cold leather of the stretcher making her shiver, with one hand pressed against her stomach while the other was tucked under her head.

On the opposite wall the door was kept open and she was watching the teachers pass in fast steps, listened to their voices and the secretary’s phone ringing and being answered in the office a few meters down the hall. It kept ringing for a while and Clarke heard Mr Kane talk in his deep voice, the words unable for her to make out from the distance, with the secretary commenting in her high-pitched voice in between.

After a few minutes heels clicked in her direction and she sat up when Mrs Robinson made her way through the door, cup of steaming liquid in one hand, the other resting on the shoulder of the girl to her side. It took Clarke a second to recognize her with her brown hair wild and loose, the swollen cheek and bloody lip, the knees of her pants muddy and ripped on one side. The girls name was Lexa, if she remembered correctly, also in Year 6, but in a different class, considered to be a lot of trouble. At least that is what Clarke had overheard from other students during breaks, pointing fingers and indulging in gossip.

She had been taught to not immediately confuse such opinions for the unwavering truth, but instead make her own picture of a person before developing an opinion of her own; right now, when looking Lexa up and down and taking in her face she could only think of one word: fierce.

“Take a seat, Lexa.” Mrs Robinson murmured as she pressed the girl gently into the chair right next to the door. “Cool that cheek of yours, I will try to reach your uncle.” Lexa focused her gaze on the cabinets to her right and didn’t reply, she just brought her hand carrying the ice pack to her left cheek and let her school bag fall to her feet.

Clarke’s eyes focused back onto Mrs Robinson, when the secretary made her way towards her, to offer the cup with a smile and put her hand on Clarke’s shoulder to give it a squeeze. “I brought you some company and a nice cup of tea to make your stomachache better. Are you sure you don’t want me to call your mom or dad to pick you up?”

“No!” she bit her lip. “No. I... I am sure I will feel much better after the tea and can go back to class. Thank you so much, Mrs Robinson.”

The secretary gave her a big smile. “Of course, my dear.” She walked towards the door and turned back around to give both girls another look. “I am right next door, if the two of you need anything.” Then she disappeared down the hall to head back into her office with a click, click, click.

And with that the atmosphere immediately turned awkward, and Clarke didn’t like awkward at all. She shifted a bit on the stretcher while thinking about what she could say, in the process of it making the hot tea slosh over the brim of the cup and splash onto her hand. She yelped and jumped to her feet in a hurry, kneeling down to place the cup with a clonk onto the floor.

“Shit.” She exclaimed wholeheartedly, shaking the rest of the fluid off her hand and squeezing her eyes shut to handle the surge of pain prickling in her hand without bursting out in tears. When she opened them again, Lexa was standing right in front of her, worry in her eyes – green, gorgeous green eyes, was what shot through Clarke’s brain – and reaching out to press the ice pack gently against the back of Clarke’s hand.

“Are you okay?” she asked in a murmur.

Clarke sniffled. “Yeah.” She moved to sit back down on the stretcher, pressing the ice pack against her hand, freezing the pain. “Thank you.”

Lexa hummed and slowly sat down next to her. It got quiet again and Clarke couldn’t think of a proper way to start a conversation, so after a solid minute, when her hand felt numb from the ice, she offered the pack back to Lexa. “Thanks.”

Lexa didn’t reach for it. “Are you sure? You can keep it.”

“I think you need it more than me.” Clarke gestured to Lexa’s face with her free hand. “That must hurt.”

She only got a shrug in response and Lexa took the ice pack back to press it against her cheek.

“So... what happened?”

Lexa pressed her lips together. “I had a bit of a tussle.”

Clarke laughed. “Oh really? That wasn’t obvious.” The corners of Lexa’s lips twitched into something Clarke interpreted as a smile. “I was asking about the details.”

She felt self-conscious now, because maybe Lexa didn’t even want to talk to her and the offering of the ice pack was just basic human decency. “If you feel like sharing, of course.”, she added more quietly.

Lexa stayed quiet for a moment, letting both her hands rest in her lap, fingers playing with the ice pack. Then she looked up at Clarke. “Do you know a guy named Quint?”

“I think so. Year 10?” Lexa nodded. “Isn’t he the principal’s son?” Another nod.

“During breaks in the last few weeks I saw him bullying other kids, especially girls. Belittling them, following them around, getting in their space, touching them... sometimes.”

“That is awful. Did you tell a teacher?”

Clarke got a bitter laugh in response. “Come on, you have been here for a while now, just like me. He is like royalty. They wouldn’t have believed me. Or any other student.”

After a moment it clicked in Clarke’s brain. “Hold on! Why are you using past tense? Do you... did you –“, she pointed at her own cheek, “did he do that? Did you get in a fight with him? He’s like twice your size!”

A smirk spread over Lexa’s face and when her lips stretched too much, she winced and pressed her fingers against her bruised lip for a moment.

“Now I am very, very intrigued.”, Clarke exclaimed, crossing her arms and looking at Lexa expectantly.  

“He followed some girl into the outside bathroom during break. He has done that before and he always gets his two friends to block the entrance door for a while, so I snuck in there at the beginning of break and hid in one of the stalls.” Lexa took a breath before continuing. “When I heard the girl telling him to get away from her I ran towards them and got in between. I told him to back off but he just laughed at me. So I kicked him in the balls.”

Clarke gaped at her. “What did he do?”

Lexa smirked again, smaller this time. “What I wanted him to do. He got mad, threatened me and promised I would regret that and as he was rushing towards me I slipped out of his reach, ran for the door and told him to come get me then. I screamed for help when I was outside, to attract attention, but he didn’t even notice in his rage and just threw himself at me, making both of us tumble to the ground.” She pointed at her knees. “Hence the ripped and dirty jeans. He placed himself on top of me and started hitting me. Two teachers came to drag him off after a while.” She shrugged. Then looked at Clarke and gave her a satisfied but small smile. “I guess he can’t get out of this one. Hitting a defenseless little girl in the middle of the schoolyard for all other students to see.”

Clarke just gave a little nod, still processing the awesomeness of the girl sitting in front of her. After a while she breathed out: “Wow. I can’t believe you did that.”

In return she got another shrug, apparently Lexa liked to do that. “Why not? It was the right thing to do.”

“I mean... yeah, it was. But –“, she faltered for a moment, contemplating, if she should really say what was on her mind, “– I don’t know. I just think it is incredible of you to risk so much and get hurt for people who don’t even appreciate you. I – I heard how they talk about you during break, although they probably don’t even know you and you stand up for them anyway. And just – thank you. They probably won’t say it, so I will. Thank you for exposing that disgusting scumbag.”

Her heart fluttered in her chest as Lexa looked at her with big eyes, as she bent her head down the next moment to hide her smile and flushed cheeks behind wavy wild hair falling in front of her face like a curtain.

Clarke nudged her with her shoulder and gave Lexa a genuine smile when she looked back up and tugged her hair behind her ear. Neither really knew what to say next, apparently, but inside Clarke felt like they had bonded and were connected now somehow and she liked that. She fidgeted with her hands in her lap and let the tips of her fingers glide over the still sensitive tea-burned skin, waiting for Lexa to take the next step and say something. 

“So...” she murmured after a few seconds, leaning back and resting the palms of both hands on the stretcher, her gaze jumping up and down Clarke’s form, studying her. “Why are you here and not in class?”

“Oh.” Clarke swallowed and her insides felt frozen over all of a sudden, she had not anticipated to be confronted with that question. All stress and fear coiled together in that one spot in her stomach, the one, that had been hurting and stabbing nearly constantly the last few weeks. She had been distracted for the last few minutes, for once finding something capturing enough to make her thoughts refocus, but now the tenseness returned to her body and her throat turned dry. “I – I...” she stuttered and watched as Lexa’s demeanor changed, as she realized that this question was apparently more loaded than she had thought. She leaned forward again, reaching out to touch Clarke’s arm briefly.

“Sorry, I was just trying to make conversation. If it is too personal, I understand.” She gave her a small smile and pointed to the chair by the door. “But if it is contagious, please tell me so I can rescue myself back over there.”

This evoked a little chuckle from Clarke. “No. It is not contagious...” She took a deep breath. She wanted to tell Lexa. To tell someone and stop carrying it around all day, feeling like the weight was crushing her. “It is just... my stomach. It has been hurting a lot in the last few weeks.” Her hand pressed against her shirt there while talking, grabbing the material between her fist. “My dad... he is very sick.”

She hated the way her voice had trembled saying that. A sigh escaped her and she pressed her lips together, eyes focused on the ground, because she couldn’t bring herself to look up and make this a real conversation. But when Lexa scooted closer and their sides pressed together, she did.

And then everything just tumbled out of her. “And my mom, she is... I don’t know, completely overwhelmed and scared and not sleeping and I just... I don’t want to be a burden to her. I just want to function so she doesn’t have to worry about me, too.” A tear slipped down her cheek and fell off her chin before she could rub it away with her sleeve. “And my dad... seeing him at the hospital... I just – I am so scared.” 

“Hey...”, Lexa murmured quietly, “It will be okay.”

“But maybe it won’t be. What if it won’t be?”

The other girl swallowed. “Then it won’t be for a while. But you don’t know that yet.”

Clarke sniffled and nodded. “It is the first time I told someone that he is sick. I just couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud, although it is all I can think about anymore.” A pause. “I feel lighter. From letting it out.”

“Yeah. Although it is hard, talking helps.”

Lexa was staring at the opposite wall in thought when Clarke looked up at her. “What do you mean?”

“After my parents died I didn’t talk at all for a while. And after that they became this taboo topic, something I avoided because I thought all it would bring was hurt. But eventually my cousin and uncle helped me through it and taught me that talking about the stuff that weighs you down actually makes it easier. And by talking through all that pain and worry I have now reached a place where I can appreciate all my memories with them, they aren’t tainted anymore with sadness but make me happy.” She took a shuddering breath and looked at Clarke with big eyes. “Sorry. I didn’t want to say all that.”

“No! Please don’t apologize.”

“But this is about you and your dad and not about my parents. I’m sorry. I just – wanted to say that talking about how you feel really helps. And you can talk to me about it whenever you like, I mean, now that I know and that you told me. If you – of course we don’t really know much about each other yet, but – that could change, if you like and. Yeah.” Lexa rambled with burning cheeks and then she stopped and hid her face behind the ice pack.

Clarke couldn’t help the big smile that formed on her lips. How lucky was she to be sitting in this room with this girl today? This fierce, calculated warrior for justice, thoughtful and kind stranger. “I would really like that. Get to know you better, I mean. And dump all my worries on you.”

In response she got a little smile, too. Before either of them could say anything else the bell rang out and immediately the noise of school life made its journey down the hallway to their ears, with class room doors being thrown open and students rushing out. Clarke knew that she needed to get back to class now, since she wasn’t going home and could only stay on “recovery break” for so long, so she hopped down off the stretcher and turned towards Lexa. She heard Mrs Robinson’s heels click their way out of her office and towards them.

“See you around?” she asked in a hopeful tone, scared that Lexa didn’t really mean what she had said.

“Yes, please.”, came the soft reply and they smiled shyly at each other until Mrs Robinson made her way through the door.

“Your uncle is on his way to get you and talk with the principal, Lexa.”, she said in her high-pitched voice and Lexa nodded. Then the secretary looked at Clarke and tipped her head to the side. “How are you feeling, sweetheart? Do you think you can go back to class, or should I now try to call your parents? Did the tea help a little?”

“Thanks, Mrs Robinson. The tea was fantastic. I feel much better and I will return to class now.”, she answered and lifted her bag off the ground to throw it over her shoulders. Then she gave Lexa one last look and made her way out of the room, a jump in her step.

Mrs Robinson gave Lexa a confused look after spotting the still filled mug on the ground, only getting a shrug and a little smile in response.

 

\-----

[Her father did get better. And he and Lexa’s uncle became lame embarrassing always-worrying old men over the years, standing side by side with tears in their eyes when their little girls got married to each other.]

**Author's Note:**

> catch me on lexa-el-amin.tumblr com :)


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